Monthly Archives: July 2011

Please join us for TRX: Tenther Radio on August 3, 2011 right here – listen live by clicking the play button at that time on the right. Join the conversation with your comments and questions by calling (323) 843-6008.

We’re honored to have as the show’s guests, John Dennis and Ryan Bowman.

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The greatest bungle in the debt crisis was on July 19 when as NPR reported: “Former President Bill Clinton said if faced with default, he would single-handedly raise the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment and he’d do it ‘without hesitation . . . .’”

The boorishness and bluff of the language calls to mind Bull Connor in the Civil Rights days, but this from a laconic, Big Hair Southern governor with 50 gold watches and a string of mistresses who so wanted to be a New Yorker; a kind of Simon Legree in reverse. Since, a garden variety of prominent Democrats like House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer and Barbara Boxer have called for the 14th amendment and Obama himself preposterously said that he was “tempted” to solve the debt crisis himself. Dictatorship is always the temptation and should reveal the illusion of representative government with these people. Obama would be facing reelection under impeachment so it is not likely to happen.

And I would make the suggestion that Jefferson provided a defense against unconstitutional behavior by the president like this in the Kentucky Resolutions which would leave our collective relationship null and void. Wouldn’t be the first time. This defense was proposed here in New Hampshire and Vermont at the beginning of the war on Iraq. And New Hampshire state rep Dan Itse did just that with Obamacare two years ago and it started the Tea Party.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner first broached the 14th amendment strategy. I proposed here that he should be released. Geithner sheepishly walked it back, but too late. Clinton picked up on it. Still Geithner should go.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download Add to iTunes In this episode, hosts John Bush and Michael Boldin talk about how big corporate farming interests that backed passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) are in for a surprise, we’ll tell you what Washington State is doing to combat food tyranny. They…

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Michigan State Representative Paul Opsommer, R-DeWitt, announced today that he would be working with fellow transportation leaders at the upcoming National Conference of State Legislators conference to help push for more state autonomy in transportation spending.

“The past 5 years in Lansing have focused almost continually on making sure we could always match federal transportation dollars,” Opsommer said. “The new reality is that we are going to be getting so little transportation money from Washington D.C. going forward that it is a perfect time to stop worrying about matching funds, cut the cord, and put more dollars towards Michigan priorities.”

Opsommer said nationally senators like Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey have pushed for such policy in the past and that a perfect storm was being created to finally get such a change through. While he has not seen all of the details of the Hutchison and Garrett legislation, Opsommer has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 28 in Michigan to provide support for the premise of returning authority to the States. Opsommer plans to hold hearings on the resolution this fall.

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Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times, is a piece of work. You see, Krugman is always right. And if you don’t agree with him, you’re “crazy.” Krugman begins his July 14 column, “Getting to Crazy”, with this:

“There aren’t many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default. But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.”

All craziness aside, the only way the United States could default is if President Obama were to deliberately refuse to pay off our bonds. The 14th Amendment, Section 4 forbids Obama from doing this. Obama isn’t going to risk impeachment, is he?

And surely Krugman, our Nobel Prizing-winning celebrity economist, knows that the United States can “print” money. What’s the use of a fiat currency if you can’t print off a few trillion every now and then?

So all this talk of “default” is, uh, crazy. The real worry concerns being backed into the corner and having to “print” more money to make good on our debt. QE2 then becomes QE3 and there’ll be no end to the QE’s. Also, there’s the looming possibility of a credit downgrade. (Kevin Williamson recently wrote a very sobering article for NRO on the repercussions of a credit downgrade.) Anyway, after Krugman gets through his usual invective, he trots out this:

“President Obama has made it clear that he’s willing to sign on to a deficit-reduction deal that consists overwhelmingly of spending cuts, and includes draconian cuts in key social programs, up to and including a rise in the age of Medicare eligibility. These are extraordinary concessions.”

OK, when do these cuts happen? If they don’t happen immediately or in FY2012, they aren’t real, as neither Obama nor Congress have control over anything beyond the next fiscal year. Even if they agree to a budget for FY2013, the next government can override it. The acid test of Obamian seriousness on spending cuts is whether the feds will still be funding NPR, NEA, NEH, cowboy poetry festivals, etc. — in 2012. If cuts are off-loaded to the “out years,” then Obama’s cuts are unenforceable, and won’t correct America’s fiscal death spiral, which is happening now.

I recently attended the North Raleigh Kitchen Table Meetup on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 in Wake County North Carolina. I’d like to personally thank Pam and Russ for all their hard work in managing this group. This group is very concerned and knowledgeable about Agenda 21 and ICLEI. I learned at this meeting that the City of Raleigh and Town of Cary are both members of ICLEI, and have paid sustainability managers on staff who’s job it is to manage Agenda 21 implementation.

Agenda 21 and ICLEI

Agenda 21 is a UN initiative related to sustainable development. Agenda 21 has at its core environmentalism and social justice, and requires top-down control and centralization of power. ICLEI, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, founded in 1990 and known since 2003 as Local Governments for Sustainability, counts nearly 600 U.S. cities as its members as of April 17, 2011. ICLEI is the body that implements Agenda 21.

Agenda 21, ICLEI and Private Property Rights

The main difficulty that ICLEI has with implementing Agenda 21 in the U.S. is private property rights, just the same with any environmentalist movement. Big government types (Statists) love environmental issues, because it provides them a convenient excuse to control private property and other liberties. When you elevate the good of the collective over individual liberty, then it allows the government to do anything it wants as long as it can pretend it is for the good of the collective. On it’s face, it seems intuitive that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, however in practice this is an evil doctrine because it allows slick politicians to justify any crime against an individual or group of individuals. Agenda 21 and ICLEI are just a new incarnation of top-down, soviet-style centralized control and socialism… but with a new wrinkle.

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If it is true that a failure to increase the debt limit on August 2nd has the potential to bring about economic Armageddon, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves if it’s a good idea to allow the political class in Washington to continue collectively play God with our lives? After all, these people are fallible human beings.…

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Time and time again I have overheard discussion or arguments where participants polarize. The one who knows the most attempts to stay on focus providing ever more points to show his case. The less informed cannot stay focused, as he has run out of specifics. He resorts to one of five techniques: spraying, changing the focus of the topic, repeating over and over again the few points he does have, making the argument personal, and name calling. Sometimes he uses a mixture. Let us examine each.

Spraying is the term used for those who, in essence, travel around the world in three minutes or less bringing up everything related or not. The informed seek clarity or relevance on the first point only to notice that his opponent, the ill informed and lacking depth, has switched to yet another aspect. The ill-informed stays in control of the argument only because the more informed cannot keep up. Like a shotgun blast the intent is to blow the better informed over with a mass of non-specific, semi-related data so he drops the discussion. The less informed wins only because he is left standing. Sprayers also gain additional power by increasing their volume as well. Their thought processes do not allow them to realize the extent of their ignorance.

Focus changers also run out of counter arguments or choose not to deal with the logical next step and turn instead to changing the focus of the argument. Instead of dealing with the legitimate issues raised by the Tea Party Movement the need for both major parties to provide us candidates who endorse fiscal responsibility, limited Constitutional government, and free market economics they call them racist or mobsters. The argument now moves to defending against racism. The establishment media initially relied on this technique to undermine the Tea Party Movement but it failed because the movement was a microcosm of the population itself and one might find his, normally non-activist, mother leading the charge.

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TRX: Tenther Radio is broadcast every Wednesday evening at 9pm Eastern and 6pm Pacific.Host Michael Boldin, along with rotating guest hosts Lesley Swann, Nick Hankoff, John Lambert and others talk with top experts, newsmakers, and tenther activists every week.Stream the broadcast LIVE at radio.tenthamendmentcenter.com